Subscription poll: 'Anybody but Scott' feeling strong in guv's race

By Scott PowersCentral Florida Political Pulse

Democrats Charlie Crist, Alex Sink, Bill Nelson and Nan Rich all lead Republican Gov. Rick Scott by double-digits in a head-to-head poll produced this month by The Kitchen Group, an Orlando-based subscription pollster that leans Democratic but is followed by politicos in all parties.

"The governor's not looking in great shape," said pollster Jim Kitchen.

His poll, of 633 voters who had previously agreed to be part of research pools, found former-governor and Repub lican-turned-Democrat Crist and U.S. Sen. Nelson leading Scott 64-35 and former state chief financial officer Sink -- who lost a razor-close election to Scott in 2010 -- winning 59-41.

The poll was conducted July 5-10, and has a margin of error of 3.8 percent, Kitchen said.

Kitchen's poll was a forced decision between two candidates, meaning voters did not have the opportunity to select 'undecided' or 'none of the above.' That means it did not matter whether the voters actually knew anything about the candidates.

Consequently, the most interesting result might be the numbers involving a Rich-Scott race. Rich is the only serious Democrat who actually has entered the governor's race, yet her name recognition numbers statewide reportedly have been tiny, below 20 percent this spring, though she's been actively campaigning since then. Yet she beats Scott 55-45.

The message Kitchen got: voters are saying, 'Anybody but Scott.'

"The basic question of the research I was doing, people were saying the govrnor is in trouble. I was wondering how much trouble he really is in," Kitchen said.

All the Democrats bled off at least 25 percent of the Republican voters.